


Warrior Face

by Pappels (SabakuNoKel)



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, I live for the Moana soundtrack, Inspired by Music, Pre-Movie(s), TinyToa, Younger!Maui, as you can probably tell by the title
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 14:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11038050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SabakuNoKel/pseuds/Pappels
Summary: Tamatoa is growing up but his gramma still sees him as a child. Good thing Maui is there to show him how to change that





	Warrior Face

**Author's Note:**

> I got a request for more TinyToa a while ago and finally got around to filling it (though Tama would prolly insist we don't call him tiny in this fic ʅ（´◔౪◔）ʃ )

Tamatoa grumbled to himself as he followed Maui around Lalotai. Usually he'd be happy as a clam to spend time with the demigod but right now he was too annoyed to pay the other any attention. Perhaps that was unfair though since his irritation wasn't aimed at Maui but at his gramma.

She never let him go off on his own! He'd tried to sneak off while she slept but before he could get more than a few steps away an antennae would always pull him back, effectively trapping him until she decided to let him go. She only let him out of her sight if Maui was with him and while he'd been happy to explore Lalotai with the demigod at first recently it had started to grind at him.

Maui was his best friend not his babysitter!

He didn’t really blame Maui for it since it was hardly his fault his gramma was overprotective but the fact that she thought he needed the demigod around to protect him angered him all the more. His gramma treated him like a soft bellied youngling while Maui, who despite being a demigod still had the appearance of a human, got to play the role of his protector.

It wasn’t fair. How was he supposed to prove he could take care of himself if he was never even given the chance? Maui got to come and go as he pleased, kicking butt and gathering treasures (just to give them away again but still) but the moment a monster came near him it was always 'you have to hide Tamatoa or something will eat you up before you can say fish dinners'. He was sick and tired of always hiding, he wanted to make his gramma proud but he couldn’t do that if he was forced to hide at the sight of every monster with fangs or claws which was, oh right, _all of them_.

Tamatoa let out a sigh which had Maui turning around to look at him, the dejected look on the monster's face giving him pause.

"What's got your shell in a twist all of a sudden?" Tamatoa frowned at the other's words, tilting his eyestalks back to look at his shell. It was sparkly and shiny which his gramma hadn't liked (monsters tended to be drawn to shiny things after all) but Maui had given it to him so she'd let him keep it. It was also perfectly positioned to show off the rainbow of colors that shimmered along its surface, which he'd made sure of before they'd set off. He heard Maui chuckle and twisted his eyes back around to look at the amused demigod. "I meant what's got you down?"

Tamatoa huffed, debating if he should tell the other but he'd never been good at staying quiet especially when something was bothering him so it was a rather quick debate. "Gramma thinks I'm weak. She never lets me out of her sight and she always treats me like I'm still a kid. She only lets me go out with you because all the monsters are scared of you and I _obviously_ need someone to constantly watch me because I'm not strong or clever enough to deal with any monsters by myself." He said harshly, crossing his claws over his chest while absolutely _not_ pouting because that would be childish, which he was not.

"I'm sure it's not as bad as that, she's just trying to protect you." Maui said, trying to be reassuring but Tamatoa didn’t want to be placated.

"I can take care of myself." He insisted, barely holding back from stomping his legs on the ground. It was bad enough his gramma still saw him as a child and he didn’t want Maui to think the same by acting like one.

"Sure you can but Lalotai is a scary place and unless you're even scarier she's gonna worry." The demigod explained, shrugging a shoulder. Maui's nonchalance made it seem like he thought Tamatoa couldn’t be scary which was not only wrong but just plain insulting. He shot the other a glare.

"I can be scary!" Maui quirked a brow at his exclamation, one corner of his mouth ticked up into a cocky smile.

"Oh yeah? Prove it." It was clear Maui was issuing him a challenge and if there was one thing the demigod had taught him it was to never back down from a challenge.

Unfortunately he had no idea what to do to prove it.

"How?"

"Roar for me."

Tamatoa blinked at the other. Maui wanted him to roar? Didn’t the demigod know crustaceans didn’t _roar_?

"Why?" He wouldn’t put it past Maui to try and make him roar just to mess with him, the demigod was a trickster after all.

"A good roar is an important part of your warrior face." Maui explained, clasping his hands behind his back.

Tamatoa frowned. "What's a warrior face?"

"The thing that's going to prove to your gramma that you're scary enough to make it on your own." Maui said with a confident nod. Tamatoa still wasn’t sure about this whole roaring thing but if what Maui said was true he was willing to give it a try.

So Tamatoa attempted to roar and immediately winced at the sound of the embarrassing squeak that left his throat.

"Puh-thetic." Maui said, shaking his head. "I'll give you a do-over because that was just sad."

Determined to impress Maui now and make him forget that first pitiful attempt Tamatoa roared again. He thought it sounded better this time but by the look on Maui's face the other didn’t agree.

"You call that scary?" Maui turned his head and roared over his shoulder, sending a monster Tamatoa hadn't even noticed hiding in the rocks behind them scurrying off. " _That_ was scary. Try again."

 _Showoff_ , Tamatoa thought to himself but did as he was told. He tried to mimic the sound Maui had made, lowering his voice and letting the sound build in his throat before pushing it out with a, in his humble opinion, mighty roar.

"Better," Tamatoa stood a little taller. "but not good enough." And slumped back down again.

"Well, tell me what I'm doing wrong then." He demanded, getting frustrated.

Maui shrugged a shoulder. "It's all about confidence, man. You have to believe you're tougher than every other monster out there, you gotta show them with that one look that they don't want to mess with you. You need to find that thing inside yourself that will terrify them and push it to the outside!" Tamatoa quirked an eye at the demigod's advice. Find that thing inside himself? Could the other be any more vague? Maui was watching him expectantly though so even though he had no idea what he was doing Tamatoa closed his eyes, hoping it would help him find that 'thing' faster.

At first he didn’t really feel anything, except maybe a slight hunger, but then he got the weirdest sensation that there actually _was_ something there. He didn’t know how to describe it but it felt like there was something just under his skin he'd never noticed before, something he reached out to almost instinctually that had him gasping when he felt it flare. His eyes popped back open and there was a flash of color across his vision but it faded before he could do more than blink.

"Woah! Do that again!" Maui exclaimed, leaning in close with an excited look in his eyes as his gaze flitted over the monster's face.

Tamatoa blinked, surprising at having the other so close all of a sudden. "Do what again?"

"You went all glowy for a second!" Maui was practically vibrating in his excitement, his smile stretching from ear to ear.

Tamatoa frowned.

"I did?"

"Yeah man, it looked awesome." Maui leaned back, grinning. "If you could control that you'd be the scariest monster in all of Lalotai."

He would be? Tamatoa looked down at his claws, they looked the same as always; no sign of any glow whatsoever. He tried to focus on that feeling he'd felt earlier, staring down at his claws and trying to force them to glow. For several long seconds nothing happened but then the tips of his claws suddenly flickered a bright blue for a split second which had him letting out a surprised laugh.

He could glow. He could _glow_ and he'd never known it.

Wanting to test his newfound skill Tamatoa let his skin flare up, letting out a loud roar at the same time. A surge of triumph went through him as Maui actually jumped back, clearly not having expected it.

It only took the demigod a second to recover, laughing happily as he leaned down to pull the shell off a very disgruntled looking clam.

"Now that," Maui flipped the shell around so Tamatoa could see his own glowing face reflected on the shiny inside. "is a warrior face."

Tamatoa stared at his reflection in awe. There were bright marks running along his face, framing it in a way that made him appear more menacing. The marks on his face were pink and blue, the blue a shade darker than that of his claws, and the pink extending all the way up his antennae.

He felt Maui clap a hand on his shell and pulled himself away from his reflection to look up at the demigod.

"I'm proud of you, little buddy." Maui smiled at him and Tamatoa puffed out his chest, grinning in a way that made the marks on his face stand out even more. "Now lets get back and show your gramma your new trick." His antennae perked at the mention of his gramma and he quickly started walking in the direction of where she'd be waiting, eager to show her his warrior face.

"Do you think she'll be impressed?" He asked as the demigod came to walk beside him.

Maui grinned. "If she isn't I'll eat my own skirt."

**Author's Note:**

> ugh summer is finally here and I am melting. I hate when its so hot because my productivity take a complete nosedive since all I can think about is finding some way to stay cool (which tends to result in eating too many ice creams but whatya gonna do?). Heres me crossing my fingers and hoping this heatwave will pass quickly!
> 
> Still open to prompts/questions/trades on my tumblr ;)  
> http://pepperedappels.tumblr.com/


End file.
